Banyak orang bilang bahwa optimisme dapat mendatangkan sukses. Dulu saya juga sering menemukan buku-buku motivasi yang menekankan pentingnya visualisasi dan berpikir positif tentang kesuksesan. Misalnya, seorang atlet olah raga yang sering melakukan latihan visualisasi dan berpikir positif di samping melakukan latihan fisik, ternyata mampu berprestasi lebih baik dibandingkan rekan-rekannya. Dalam pelatihan-pelatihan motivasi pun, kita sering diminta untuk membayangkan mimpi kita atau gambaran diri kita yang sukses di masa depan kemudian berpikir positif bahwa kita akan mampu mencapainya.

Sebenarnya tidak ada yang salah dengan itu. Semakin jelas visualisasi yang kita buat maka semakin jelas pula apa yang benar-benar kita inginkan dan itu bagus, apalagi kalau kita percaya bahwa kita bisa mencapainya. Sayangnya, sering kita cuma berhenti di situ saja dan lupa untuk menyusun rencana yang detail untuk menuju ke sana. Sesi training pun biasanya berakhir saat kita sudah punya gambaran jelas tentang mimpi kita dan bisa menceritakannya pada peserta training lainnya, padahal kita belum betul- betul memikirkan cara bagaimana mencapainya. Saat kembali ke rumah masing-masing, hilanglah semua angan-angan itu.

Kita sering lupa bahwa untuk meraih mimpi tersebut kita perlu effort yang banyak. Kita harus percaya bahwa kita bisa meraih sukses dan pada saat yang sama, kita juga harus percaya bahwa untuk meraihnya, kita perlu usaha, perencanaan yang matang, persistensi, dan strategi yang tepat.

Seperti kata Heidi, “to be successful, you need to understand the vital difference between believing you will succeed, and believing you will succeed easily”. Yang terbaik adalah orang yang percaya bahwa mereka akan sukses dan sama percayanya bahwa sukses itu tidak akan datang dengan mudah. Sebab, dengan begitu dia akan berusaha lebih keras, membuat perencanaan lebih baik, dan mampu bertahan lebih lama saat menghadapi situasi buruk. Berbeda halnya dengan orang yang percaya bahwa dunia akan membantunya menjadi sukses hanya dengan berpikir optimis.

Seperti atlet yang disebut di atas, prestasinya bisa diraih bukan hanya karena latihan visualisasinya, melainkan juga latihan fisiknya–yang jauh lebih keras dari teman-temannya karena lewat visualisasi tersebut dia tahu  bahwa effort yang harus dia keluarkan untuk menoreh prestasi harus lebih besar dari teman-temannya :)

Memangnya ada apa aja?

Dua Bulan Pertama

Semua bermula dari dua bulan pertama di tahun 2011. Dalam waktu yang berdekatan, beberapa tulisan di blog ini berhasil meraih penghargaan. Tulisan tentang perkembangan social media dan cara agar kita bisa memanfaatkannya secara efektif berhasil membawa saya menjadi salah satu finalis Microsoft Bloggership Award 2011. Sementara itu, 7 tulisan studi kasus seputar consulting, technology services dan outsourcing di blog ini berhasil memenangkan Accenture Do You Know Contest for Bloggers. Senangnya, mengingat baru sejak akhir tahun 2010 saya mulai kembali menulis blog setelah sebelumnya berhenti sekian lama. Lomba-lomba seperti ini penting untuk meningkatkan gairah menulis untuk blogger angin-anginan seperti saya :)

Yang unik, untuk kedua kompetisi tersebut Mas Enda Nasution jadi juri. Sampai-sampai waktu saya dapat penghargaan di Accenture Awarding Night, Mas Enda menulis tweet ini:

Follow @enda@enda
Enda Nasution

Congrats @juliansputra sbg pemenang Accenture DYK Blog Contest! Ga mng yg satu mng yg ini ya hehehe

March 5, 2011 7:32 pm via Plume  ReplyRetweetFavorite

Jadilah itu salah satu tweet favorit saya :)

Penn Olson

Selanjutnya adalah serangkaian berita baik. Akhir bulan Februari, tiba-tiba saya mendapat tawaran untuk menulis di salah satu blog favorit saya: Penn Olson (PO). PO adalah blog dari Singapura yang banyak membahas berita seputar teknologi, startups, dan social media di Asia. Jujur saja, saya kaget dan senang sekali mendapat tawaran itu. Sebab, saya memang suka sekali tulisan-tulisan di blog itu, khususnya tentang social media dan berbagai infographic yang menarik. Bisa menulis di sana waktu itu rasanya seperti mimpi :)

Jadilah mulai bulan Maret saya menulis untuk PO. Kalau ingin tahu apa saja yang sudah saya tulis, silakan berkunjung ke halaman saya di PO. Inilah salah satu sebab mengapa saya mulai jarang menulis di blog ini. Untuk membuat tulisan-tulisan tersebut, tentunya saya perlu waktu juga untuk membaca berbagai sumber, menghadiri event, melakukan interview dan sebagainya. Mengingat saya masih kerja sebagai konsultan, melakukan itu semua di sela-sela pekerjaan saya adalah hal yang cukup menantang.

Beruntung, di bulan April, tugas saya di salah satu proyek SAP support sudah selesai. Saya jadi punya cukup waktu untuk beradaptasi dengan aktivitas baru saya sebagai kontributor di PO. Load pekerjaan saya di kantor tidak banyak seperti di project. Paling tidak, waktu after office hours hampir selalu bisa digunakan untuk menulis.

PO yang akhir-akhir ini lebih banyak membahas seputar perkembangan IT startup di Asia, rasanya sangat sejalan dengan apa yang memang belakangan terjadi di Indonesia. Keberhasilan beberapa IT startup lokal seperti Kaskus yang didanai dengan jumlah yang sangat besar oleh Group Djarum dan Koprol yang akhirnya pun dibeli Yahoo!, membuat banyak kaum muda kita terinspirasi. Apalagi dengan adanya dukungan komunitas seperti #StartupLokal. Belakangan, startup lokal lainnya, Disdus, dibeli oleh Groupon, raksasa di bidang group buying site di dunia dan Presiden SBY pun memuji prestasi Koprol di salah satu forum internasional.

Saya percaya bahwa satu kebaikan selalu membawa kebaikan yang lain. Senada dengan itu, satu kesempatan, jika benar-benar kita manfaatkan, akan selalu datang membawa banyak kesempatan lainnya. Contohnya, lewat menulis di PO, saya pun mendapat tawaran untuk menulis di sejumlah media lainnya. Yang unik, semua datangnya dari luar negeri, satu dari Amerika, satu dari Jepang. Saya pun berminat untuk menerimanya. Untuk yang ini, beritanya nanti, ya ;)

Forum Indonesia Muda

Selain menulis, saya pun punya kesempatan untuk mengerjakan salah satu kegiatan tahunan favorit saya, yaitu menjadi panitia pelatihan leadership Forum Indonesia Muda (FIM). Uniknya, tahun ini pun pelatihan FIM bertema entrepreneurship.

Hal ini antara lain diawali oleh diskusi-diskusi saya dan teman-teman alumni FIM yang juga teman satu program studi saya di ITB, yaitu Achmad Zaky dan Fajrin Rasyid. Keduanya juga kini sedang mengembangkan IT startup, Suitmedia, yang saya yakin prospeknya ke depan akan cerah :)

Itulah yang terjadi selama tiga bulan terakhir, sehingga saya jarang menulis di blog kesayangan saya ini. Di kantor, saya pun terlibat di banyak kegiatan, seperti membantu pembuatan proposal proyek untuk berbagai industri, mengelola kegiatan knowledge sharing untuk level associate consultant di IBM Global Business Services, dan ikut kegiatan sosial IBM mengajar guru-guru SD tentang dasar-dasar IT untuk pendidikan :)

Oh ya, saat ini saya sedang persiapan untuk mengikuti ujian sertifikasi SAP. Doakan, ya! Setelah itu saya akan menulis lebih sering lagi. Insya Allah :)

Update: saya lolos ujian sertifikasi SAP! Dan saya pun dapat tawaran menulis dari UK :)

After the Tsunami struck Aceh and other regions in December 2004, Save the Children contacted Accenture to develop a logistic and procurement database that would help in managing all of the inflows of goods and delivery to the needed areas. For this case, we have two questions:

What benefit did Save the Children receive from Accenture Development Partnership? What would happened if Save the Children managed their own tool kit?

Saving Nazia. Courtesy of Afghanistan Matters on Flickr.

As a prominent  non-profit organization, Save the Children has a mission to create changes and to bring a better life for people around the world. When disaster strikes, Save the Children is there to save people with food, medical care, education and stays to help communities rebuild their region through long-term recovery programs.

Save the Children work with other organizations, governments, non-profits and a variety of local partners while maintaining their own independence without political agenda or religious orientation. One of its partners is Accenture Development Program (ADP).

ADP is a group within Accenture and a pioneering “corporate social enterprise” that employs an innovative non-profit business model as a means to channel Accenture’s core business capabilities to organizations in the international development center.

ADP’s mission is to have catalytic impact on global development challenges by:

• Providing development sector organizations with access to Accenture’s people, knowledge, methodologies, frameworks, and global network.
• Teaming with their clients to help them become high-performance organizations, applying Accenture’s business and technology experience to help them fulfill their missions and maximize their impact.
• Advancing market-based solutions to development challenges that are scalable, sustainable and outcome-oriented.
• Fostering collaboration and partnerships among the public, private and non-profit sectors to address global development challenge.

ADP started as a corporate social enterprise in 2003. On May 2010, ADP has completed 330 projects for 74 non-profit clients, worked across 58 developing countries, and deployed more than 700 Accenture employees. Save the Children is one of ADP’s major clients, which also include UNDP, UNICEF, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Oxfam, Plan International, WWF, CARE, International Red Cross, GAIN, and World Vision.

Accenture has the industry knowledge, strategy expertise and supply chain experience to help clients design and execute significant transformational programs across traditional planning, sourcing & procurement, manufacturing & design and fulfillment operations functions.

Advancing Supply Chain Processes

According to the case study, after the tsunami struck Aceh in 2004, Save the Children contacted Accenture to improve its supply chain processes. Accenture then developed a logistic and procurement database that would help Save the Children to manage all of the inflows of goods and delivery to the needed areas. The database provided all related data supporting Save the Children’s supply chain processes, including planning, procurement, supply network management, inventory management and delivery that allowed them to make better decisions along the processes.

Save the Children operated its supply chains in complex and challenging environment, so they needed to be able both to deliver vital commodities rapidly in response to humanitarian crises and operated global supply chains on an ongoing basis that could reach poor and remote areas with severe infrastructure constraints. ADP leveraged Accenture’s extensive supply chain capabilities to help Save the Children in building strong supply chain capabilities, operated by skilled people and robust processes and systems.

The custom-developed toolkit provided by ADP was very important to record Save the Children’s typical logistic transactions, such as requisition, procurement, and request for delivery, delivery order, goods receipt, and stock adjustment. The combination of this toolkit with the logistic and procurement database should be powerful to improve Save the Children’s supply chain management.

According to the a study held by Accenture, which evaluated operations in 19 locations in several countries, investments in supply chain management will contribute to the goal of doubling the number of children reached by Save the Children, with an estimated $12 million in potential savings.

If Save the Children managed their own tool kit, there were several risks would possibly emerge, because of diverse technology solutions that supported their operations. To manage a complex supply chain, Save the Children needed more standardized and integrated system that could help them to manage all suppliers and delivery channels to get the logistics arrived at desired locations timely and at lower cost.

Developing and managing their own toolkit would make Save the Children have to allocate their resources to maintain them and assure they work properly. However, this of course was not their main tasks. They actually had more important tasks such as developing localized programs for people in several places, developing a comprehensive study, and many more. Establishing partnership with ADP was a good choice for Save the Children since they could get access to skilled people, standardized processes and latest technology that could provide better quality and saved their time.

This article is part of a series of case studies from Accenture Bloggers and Journalist Competition. The main purpose of this competition is to introduce the world of consulting, technology services, and outsourcing, which are the main businesses of Accenture. You may comment, discuss, or share this article by mentioning the original source.

References

To support its growth agenda to be a high performance global business, RGM assessed the viability of setting up a shared services center that could function  as a scalable base in terms of providing IT, finance and accounting, and human resources support services to the client’s group of companies and other businesses.  Accenture’s feasibility study identified areas for synergy in support functions: human resource, information technology or information systems and finance & administration. Now we have two questions:

Would a Shared Service Center be the best option for RGM? Would it make sense to have business process standardization, streamlining and improvement opportunities within the business units and across the organization as a whole? Explain the reasons for your argument.

Building Texture. Courtesy of Iurte on Flickr.

Shared Service Center is an internal business organization which provides support services that are shared across multiple business units or function. It can be also a virtual or physical team whose process expertise is shared across multiple business units or functions, rather than duplicating staff in each business unit, to execute business processes in a consistent manner for optimal resource efficiency, saving cost and delivering high performance services.

Shared service model is different from outsourcing model, where an external third party is paid to provide a service that was previously internal. There is an on-going debate about the advantages of shared services over outsourcing. However, in practice, sometimes companies use the combination of both models, creating a Shared Service Center that operates globally in coordination with external parties.

Main purpose of shared services is the convergence, standardization and streamlining of an organization’s functions to ensure that they deliver the services required to the organizations as effective and efficient as possible. This often involves centralizing of back office functions such as finance, human resource, and IT. The key advantage of this convergence is that it enables the companies to get economies of scale within the function and enables multifunction working, when there is a potential to create synergies.

Shared Service Center is traditionally developed within an organization as a result of the need to reduce costs, standardize business processes and allow the business to focus on core activities. However, in the last 5 years, the benefits derived from the implementation of Shared Service Center have changed as companies look to drive not only cost reductions, but also increasing business value of their non-core functions. According to a study by Shared Service and Outsourcing Network (SSON) and the Hackett Group, it is found that only a third of all participants surveyed were able to generate cost savings of 20%. Companies were significantly more successful in achieving productivity and quality improvement goals through the implementation of shared services.

RGM’s Shared Service Center

Now, back to the case study. Given the opportunity to reduce costs, standardize business process and get better service quality that is promised by shared service model, it is clear that developing a Shared Service Center is a good option for RGM. Some reasonable reasons supporting this decision are as follow:

1. Shared Service Center allows RGM to consolidate and standardize its diversified global business operations.

   As a global company which operates in three different regions–Asia Pacific, South America and Europe–with its double-digits growth rate, RGM’s market development can be characterized by globalization, where mergers, acquisitions and consolidations are common practice, requiring the company to standardize operations to stay competitive. An effective way to keep costs down and improve efficiency is by moving certain functions to one central location and build a Shared Service Center.

   From an operational standpoint, success for RGM is about having strong global operations–highly standardized in terms of economies of scale–as well as strong local capabilities to serve and compete for customers. Shared Service Center can be a powerful tool for achieving the balance between highly standardized processes and a strong customer focus with high levels of service. Organization that drive a higher level of simplification on the inside through more standardized processes can achieve higher levels of business performance.

2. Shared Service Center turns RGM into a more adaptable company for any changes

   RGM’s growth agenda to be a high performance global business requires the company to be adaptable to change. Many companies are finding that shared services organizations provide an engine to drive growth, especially through mergers and acquisitions. They also find that shared services is a powerful engine to attain value from new synergies of a merger and acquisitions. Shared Service Center makes the company who implement it to be extremely adept at dealing with change. It helps the company convert rapidly from dispersed operations based on geographic or business units to centralized operations based on a globally consistent approach.

3. Shared Service Center turns RGM into a more customer centric company

   Shared Service Center  can be an important component to drive better customer centricity. Key success factor in shared services is to balance a focus on customer needs and the ability to deliver services at competitive cost. Shared Service Center gives RGM the opportunity to focus more on their core competence to deliver best services for their customers. Shared Service Center also enables quick market development and post-merger integration.

4. Shared Service Center can reduce cost and free up capital

   Reducing cost is common objective of building Shared Service Center. To some extent, it can free up some capital for core business operations. By allowing companies to minimize their investment in incremental infrastructure, it enables redirection of funds, which can foster expansion and growth of products and market. Shared Service Center can also leverage shared infrastructure. Acquisitions become economical because with shared services there is no need to pay for technologies and processes that in long term may be discarded. RGM only pays for core competencies they want as reliable information and consistent performance measures are already in place.

Based on the feasibility study by Accenture, there are three areas where RGM can build a synergy with Accenture in support functions: human resource, information technology or information systems, and finance. Accenture then proposed to give implement a bundled outsourcing model for RGM’s Shared Services Center.

Following the plan, Accenture worked closely with RGM in 2006 to set up its Shared Services Center. Accenture was, subsequently, appointed to jointly operate the center through a co-source model. As a co-source partner, Accenture brought to bear its experiences in setting up and operating large-scale shared services centers in other markets. Accenture introduced proven best practices that supported and improved the center’s processes, drove the use of appropriate tools and technology to improve the day-to-day operations of the center, and focused on employee-related initiatives.

This article is part of a series of case studies from Accenture Bloggers and Journalist Competition. The main purpose of this competition is to introduce the world of consulting, technology services, and outsourcing, which are the main businesses of Accenture. You may comment, discuss, or share this article by mentioning the original source.

References

Due to the IT-intensive nature of banking business, one of the important aspects of the bank merger is the IT and Operations integration. The speed of completing the merger depends on the speed of IT & Operations integration, whereas the true one-bank service happens only upon completion of the IT & Operations integration. Its timeline will drive the timeline for most other activities.

Accenture partnered with CIMB Niaga to provide the overall Merger Program Management Office. Since Accenture’s scope covered mainly IT, it leveraged its Merger Integration Framework and Methodology to plan and execute the merger in two phases: Planning Phase and Implementation Phase.

In the Planning Phase, Accenture worked with CIMB Niaga in defining ‘To-Be’ Target Operating Model for IT and Operations and selected business areas of the merged entity. The IT & Operations integration plan provided a clear roadmap with the best options on how the integration would be achieved within the timeline required by CIMB Niaga. In the Implementation Phase, Accenture worked with CIMB Niaga to manage the execution of the merger integration activities to achieve Legal Day 1 and Operational Day 1, in line with the Target Operating Model and target schedule defined. Now, we have one question:

What would be the key success factors in the planning phase that would make an impact in the implementation phase?

Bank Junction. Courtesy of Mark Hillary on Flickr

Merger is a combination of two corporations in which only one corporation survives and the merged corporation goes out of existence. It is become more and more popular in banking sector as competition grows and there is a global trend toward larger and larger banks that prompts financial services institutions in all regions to revisit their expansion strategies with a new sense of urgency. Hence, the number of mergers and acquisitions is expected to rise over the next few years.

As stated in the case study, due to the IT-intensive nature of banking business, one of the important aspects of bank merger is the IT and Operations integration. IT can be a powerful factor behind a merger success. According to a study by McKinsey & Company, more than a half the synergies available in a merger of financial service institutions are strongly related to IT, for example in lowering IT infrastructure costs, reducing IT head count, or increasing volume discounts for IT procurement. On the other hand, IT systems integration often presents a major hurdle.

To increase the chances of getting successful IT and Operation integration, The Boston Consulting Group has identified six guiding principles to be implemented based on their experiences in numerous banking mergers as follow:

1. Choose from existing systems landscapes–don’t build a third

   Selecting existing systems from two merging banks is better than creating a new one because it limit both the amount of overall systems integration required and the time and effort needed to complete the process. Note that the selection process should be transparent to minimize politically driven decision and avoid incurring additional costs at the later stage.

2. Identify clusters of applications

   Cluster is a set of applications and data that form a relatively autonomous unit. Comparing clusters of applications from two merged banks is viewed as the most effective way to perform selection process between two existing IT systems. This approach is better than choosing applications one by one for each function that has a risk in low synergies and long turn-around time or choosing overall IT systems as one entity that has risk of limited functionalities and high training cost.

3. Follow a rigorous selection process

   There should be a standardized framework to make technical evaluation and functional comparisons between clusters of applications chosen.  Some major criteria that must be taken into account includes: The functionality within the context of new business strategy and operating model; Quality, durability and flexibility of each cluster’s technical architecture; Potential savings on operating costs; Feasibility of the migration project; and Speed of implementation.

4. Look for nuggets

   Nuggets are isolated applications that can prove to be absolutely necessary for continuing certain services or sustaining a specific competitive advantage. After choosing a cluster of applications  from one bank, it is common to keep a nugget application from a parallel cluster at another bank.

5. Balance integration speed with careful system selection

   It is critical to give deadlines in choosing clusters. Delays can destroy the value of merger since the merged entity should invest in two systems as long as integrations are not completed. However, an overly hurried process without sufficient transparency often results in decisions being revisited later. Rigorous and transparent method should be adopted to ensure a good result.

6. Monitor implementation closely

   Implementation occurs once after all systems choices have been made. The merged bank should monitor all IT implementation projects under a common framework. It is vital to set up a tracking mechanism to help  provide control over intermediary milestones and create the transparency needed to inform the stakeholders about the IT integration progress.

Key Success Factors for Planning Phase

According to the case study, Accenture decided to split the integration process into two phases: Planning Phase and Implementation Phase. The objective of Planning Phase is to define the new Target Operating Model for IT and Operations and selected business area of merged entity, which is reflected on the integration plan that will be executed in the Implementation Phase.

The key success factors in the Planning Phase that will make an impact on the Implementation Phase are as follow:

1. Appropriate Integration Manager

   An Integration Manager plays a critical role in IT and Operations integration. Beside building the integration teams, Integration Manager also helps to consolidate operations and transfer critical skills across them and struggle to meet targets such as head count reductions, market share goals, and time schedules. Integration Manager will be also required to set up an effective governance and fast decision making environment.In the Implementation Phase, an effective Integration Manager will not only report to the steering committee but also help to set the company’s agenda.

   Implementation monitoring, an important task to maintain the integration progress, will be also led by the Integration Manager. Since timing is crucial, Integration Manager should be involved as early as possible to the integration project right after recruited to get adequate time for learning what will be critical to success.

2. Clear and well defined Target Operating Model and Implementation Plan

   Clear Target Operating Model has proven to be a key enabler to successful integration. It is necessary, since it will be referenced during the Implementation Phase. Selection of IT systems and applications from the merged banks and design of the new system landscape will be primarily based on this model. A clear and well-planned model will ensure a transparent and reliable decision making processes during implementation.

   To maintain the integration progress, the Implementation Plan should be also clear and well-defined. The scope of business areas to be integrated, the time frame, milestones and quick wins should be identified early and the parameters for each item are distinct. Implementation Plan should also include a migration routines to transfer data from original system to the new or chosen system.

3. Trust and commitment from senior executives

   To ensure a smooth integration process, the involvement of senior executives from two merged banks are really important. They will help to provide any resources needed or make critical decisions to support the integration team. Integration Manager plays a key role to connect with them and gain trust and buy-in as the project goes on.

4. Right selection of new system platform

   The selected system platform will best support the combined product set and any planned new products. The chosen platform should have technology that not only is sustainable over the long term but also is able to handle the additional customers from a merger process and fit into the merged company’s goals for the overall system architecture. Moreover, the platform should not be so complex that the company will lack the necessary resources and skill sets to support and develop it. Risk must be minimized, and so must the impact on customers. The new platform must also take into account the views of the business units and be deliverable within the overall time lines for the merger.

5. Risk management

   IT and Operations integration process has some inherent risks that should be identified since the early stage of the Planning Phase. Unmanaged risks will make an impact on the project schedule and potentially delay the Legal Day One or Operation Day One that are critical to the success of merger process.

   It is good to develop a risk analysis framework that mitigates customer attrition and operation risks through proven practices, techniques, and past experiences. A thorough risk analysis effort will identify the issues, and allows the integration team to be in a position to quickly address those issues. Further, it will give comfort to executive management, the board, and regulators that the bank is prepared for any challenges associated with the merger.

This article is part of a series of case studies from Accenture Bloggers and Journalist Competition. The main purpose of this competition is to introduce the world of consulting, technology services, and outsourcing, which are the main businesses of Accenture. You may comment, discuss, or share this article by mentioning the original source.

References